Using Our Themes To Inspire Web Development

Posted on Aug 16 2014 by C. in Blog Blogs and Blogging

Are you an aspiring web developer looking to create plugins and themes for WordPress? Then you should buy our premium package so you can see how our professional themes are designed. Not everyone uses the exact same structure when writing code, no matter what coding language you are using. This can lead to problems, when developing code that will be used by a large amount of people. In order to increase compatibility with other plugins, themes, and WordPress itself, follow the WordPress coding standards. These standards can be found at wordpress.org and help create a uniform coding structure that everyone should go along with. If you want your plugin or theme to reach tons of users, learn how to follow the WordPress coding standards.

Visit the Official WordPress Site
To start understanding the coding standards preferred by WordPress, visit the official WordPress site at codex.wordpress.org. There you will find detailed information explaining proper syntax for writing in PHP, CSS, HTML, and JavaScript. By using a consistent style, your code will be easier for others to read and understand. This will include the proper syntax for writing your code, use of spaces, and the proper method for including comments in each coding language.

Avoid Name Collisions from Duplicate Function Names
WordPress is created by a large group of developers. The same is true of plugins and themes. If you have a theme created by someone else, as well as several plugins, there are going to be a large amount of functions created by various developers. To avoid naming a function a name that already exists, create your own prefix. Name collisions can create fatal errors that may make your WordPress website impossible to view or lead to other errors. Creating a prefix is a simple solution. For example, if you are developing a plugin called “WordPress Example Plugin”, you may create a prefix wep_ and use it for every function that you create.

Include Detailed Comments
Leaving comments will not only help yourself remember small details about your plugin or theme months after you have written the code, it will also help other developers that want to edit your plugin for their own use. Use comments in your main PHP file to explain the purpose of your plugin and detail special functions and other unique coding.

Test your Plugin or Theme Thoroughly
Even if you follow the WordPress coding standards, you should always thoroughly test your plugin or theme. Start by running plugins in debug mode to weed out any potential errors. Errors can be used by hackers for malicious attacks. Security is a major part of development for WordPress plugins and themes that are going to be used by other WordPress users. Also, before you get too far into the coding process, find out if any of the functions you need to use are already a part of the core functions included in a basic WordPress installation. Using functions that already exist will help keep your plugin smaller and can help prevent security issues.
Whether you are writing your first WordPress plugin or plan on editing an existing WordPress plugin, always follow the coding standards preferred by WordPress. Limit security risks and compatibility issues by looking over the correct syntax usage for PHP, CSS, HTML, and JavaScript. Once you get started, it is not difficult to keep your coding clean and easy to read. Before you write too much code, make sure you read the official coding standards for WordPress and be sure to purchase one of our premium themes as a good starting point.